"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Mish-mash



A mish-mash is a confused mixture of things,; a hodgepodge; a jumbled conglomeration; 

The first known use of the word is to be found in the 15th century.  It is thought to originate from Middle English & Yiddish; Middle English mysse masche, perhaps reduplication of mash mash; Yiddish mish-mash, perhaps reduplication of mishn to mix.

There is also a reference to a place called Michmash in Nehemiah 7:31 in the Hebrew Scriptures but how relevant that is I don’t know.
  

2 comments:

  1. Mischen is German for mixing, and Mischmasch or Misch-Masch is how we call a... well, a mish-mash. I had no ideaa similar word occurs in the Old Testament!

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  2. Right now, my mind is a mish-mash of thoughts as i try to pack and get out of town. It would be entirely appropriate for this expression to be a conglomeration of words from two languages, wouldn't it?

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